What Agencies Are Affected by a Government Shutdown?

During a federal government shutdown, the agencies affected fall into two groups: those whose work is legally allowed to continue without new appropriations, and those that furlough most of their staff and stop most of their work. National defense, federal law enforcement, VA medical care, Social Security, Medicare, air traffic control, and the Postal Service keep operating. National parks, the Smithsonian, most of the IRS, the EPA, the Small Business Administration’s lending programs, and much of the SEC scale back sharply or close. The split is not always intuitive, and it matters for anyone waiting on a federal service, benefit, loan, or paycheck.

Why the Split Happens

The Antideficiency Act bars federal agencies from spending money or entering contracts unless Congress has appropriated the funds.¹ When appropriations lapse, each agency has to stop any work that isn’t legally authorized to continue, and every agency head must keep a contingency plan explaining what survives.²

The Office of Management and Budget allows continued work in a few narrow categories: activity funded by something other than annual appropriations (trust funds, user fees), activity expressly authorized by law, activity necessary to carry out the President’s constitutional duties, and activity necessary to protect life and property.³ Everything else stops. A shutdown can be full, hitting every annually funded agency, or partial, hitting only the departments whose spending bills haven’t passed.

Agencies That Keep Operating

Defense and Federal Law Enforcement

Military operations continue worldwide, and active-duty service members stay at their posts. The Pentagon issues contingency guidance sorting civilian employees into excepted and furloughed categories, and non-essential travel and conferences are cut immediately.⁴

The Department of Justice treats its entire law enforcement capacity as essential. FBI agents and their field support staff, DEA agents, ATF investigators, and U.S. Marshals are all excepted from furlough. Criminal prosecutions continue, and background-check systems like the National Instant Criminal Background Check System stay online.⁵ Customs and Border Protection also holds its full posture: Border Patrol agents and CBP officers stay on duty around the clock, though they work without pay until funding resumes.

Veterans Affairs

VA medical centers, outpatient clinics, and Vet Centers stay open and deliver all services as usual.⁶ VA health care runs on a separate funding cycle, with advance appropriations already in place before any lapse. For most veterans, the shutdown is nearly invisible.

Social Security and Medicare

Social Security payments go out on schedule. The Social Security Administration has confirmed that retirement benefits and Supplemental Security Income keep flowing without any change in payment dates.⁷ Medicare continues because it’s paid from the Medicare trust fund rather than annual appropriations, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services keeps Medicare, healthcare fraud enforcement, and CMS Innovation Center activities running through a lapse.⁸

Airports and Air Traffic Control

About 95 percent of TSA employees are classified as essential and keep screening passengers without pay.⁹ Air traffic controllers likewise remain on duty. The practical catch is staffing. During the 2026 partial shutdown, nearly 500 TSA workers quit and others called out sick, and some airports temporarily closed dedicated PreCheck lanes. Planes still fly; the security line can get slower.

Federal Courts

The federal judiciary stays open by drawing on court fee balances and other non-appropriated funds, but only for a limited stretch. During the January 2026 lapse, the courts announced they could sustain paid operations through February 4.¹⁰ After that, they shift to Antideficiency Act operations, keeping only the staff needed to support the exercise of judicial power under Article III. Speedy-trial cases and emergency motions continue regardless.

Mail and Passports

The Postal Service is an independent entity funded by stamp and shipping sales rather than tax dollars, so mail delivery is unaffected.¹¹ Passport processing and visa services at U.S. embassies and consulates also continue, because they run on fee-based accounts. Shortages of contract guards and local support staff paid from lapsed funds can trim public-service hours, and processing that involves HUD or USCIS coordination may slow.

Agencies That Shut Down or Scale Back

National Parks

The Park Service furloughs roughly 64 percent of its workforce. Park roads, trails, lookouts, and open-air memorials generally stay physically accessible, but visitor centers and other staffed facilities are locked. Restroom maintenance, trash collection, road upkeep, campground operations, and law enforcement continue on a limited basis where areas remain accessible. Volunteer programs stop when staff aren’t there to supervise them.¹² Parks that consist entirely of buildings or normally locked areas close completely.

Smithsonian Museums and the National Zoo

All 21 Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo, and 14 education and research centers close to the public.¹³ Closures typically don’t happen on day one. During the October 2025 shutdown, the Smithsonian warned visitors for about a week before locking its doors. Animal care at the Zoo continues as an essential function; the public just can’t visit.

Internal Revenue Service

The IRS scales back sharply but doesn’t go completely dark. Walk-in Taxpayer Assistance Centers close, and most live phone support disappears, though automated phone systems and IRS.gov tools like “Where’s My Refund” keep working. Tax refunds generally stop, with one exception: electronically filed, error-free returns that can be processed automatically with direct deposit still go out. Criminal investigations and compliance work protecting statutes of limitations continue, and the IRS keeps preparing for tax season so filing infrastructure doesn’t fall behind.¹⁴ Applications for tax-exempt status and pension plan determinations stop entirely.

Environmental Protection Agency

The EPA shuts down most of its public-facing and regulatory work. New grants and interagency agreements halt. Research pauses. Civil enforcement inspections, permit issuance, guidance documents, and regulatory actions stop unless tied to an exempted activity. Superfund cleanups continue only where there’s an imminent threat to health or property. Even the agency’s website stops getting updated.¹⁵

NASA

NASA sorts activities into excepted and non-excepted based on OMB guidelines and its legal counsel’s review. Employees on excepted work may be full-time, part-time, or on-call; everyone else is furloughed and barred from working.¹⁶ Mission control for crewed spaceflight and support for astronauts aboard the International Space Station continues. Ground-based research and administrative functions go dark.

Small Business Administration

The SBA freezes its core lending programs. During the 2025–2026 shutdown, new 7(a) and 504 loan applications stopped being accepted, blocking an estimated $170 million per business day from reaching roughly 320 small businesses that would otherwise be approved.¹⁷ Loans already approved before the lapse can still be funded, but nothing new moves until appropriations resume.

Securities and Exchange Commission

The SEC keeps only a skeleton crew for emergencies. Market surveillance continues, along with emergency enforcement like seeking temporary restraining orders against ongoing fraud. Reviews of registration statements for new securities offerings, broker-dealer registrations, approvals for new financial products, and routine oversight of self-regulatory organizations stop.¹⁸ EDGAR still accepts filings, but staff can’t declare registration statements effective or qualify offering statements, effectively pausing IPOs and other capital raises.¹⁹

Nutrition and Benefit Programs

Unlike Social Security, federal nutrition programs rely on annual appropriations and have limited backup funding. SNAP can usually continue for a short period using contingency reserves, but those reserves aren’t unlimited. During the 2025 shutdown, roughly 42 million low-income people faced the prospect of losing benefits once the reserves ran out.

Medicaid depends on whether advance appropriations were enacted. During the FY 2026 lapse, CMS had enough advance-appropriated Medicaid funding for the first two quarters of the fiscal year, keeping the program running in the near term.⁸ WIC, which serves pregnant women and young children, can keep operating only as long as funding is available. Historically that window is about a week before states start running out. States can carry forward up to three percent of the prior year’s unused funding, and USDA can reallocate returned funds, but a prolonged shutdown puts WIC participants at real risk with no federal backstop.

What This Means for Federal Workers and Contractors

A shutdown splits the federal workforce into two groups, and neither has a good time. Non-excepted employees are furloughed: placed in non-duty, non-pay status and prohibited from doing any work, including checking government email or using government-issued devices. At USDA, a furloughed employee who uses their government laptop during a shutdown could face fines up to $5,000 or up to two years in prison.²⁰ Excepted employees face the mirror problem: they’re required to keep working, without pay, until the shutdown ends. Their work involves protecting life, safeguarding property, or performing other functions the agency’s legal counsel has determined must continue.²¹

Back Pay

Back pay is now guaranteed by law. The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 requires that every furloughed federal employee be paid for the period of the lapse, and every excepted employee who worked during it be paid at their standard rate, as soon as possible after appropriations resume.²² The guarantee applies automatically to any lapse beginning on or after December 22, 2018. It doesn’t help with timing. Employees can still go weeks or months without income while the shutdown drags on.

Health Coverage and Unemployment

Federal employee health coverage under FEHB continues even if the agency misses premium payments during the shutdown. Once the lapse ends, accumulated premiums are deducted from paychecks with one extra withholding per pay period until the balance is caught up. Dental and vision coverage under FEDVIP works the same way: enrollment can’t be canceled for nonpayment during a lapse, and premiums are collected after employees return to pay status.

Furloughed federal employees can file for Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees, administered by state agencies. You file with the state where your last official duty station was located, starting the first day you’re placed in non-pay status.²³ The catch: in most states, once you receive retroactive back pay for the same period, you’ll be required to repay the unemployment benefits. It’s bridge funding, not bonus money. Eligibility rules and waiting periods vary by state.

Contractors

Federal contractors can receive stop-work orders under FAR 52.242-15, which requires the contractor to immediately stop work and minimize costs for up to 90 days. At the end of that window, the government must either cancel the order and let work resume or terminate the contract.²⁴ Unlike federal employees, contractors have no legal right to back pay for the period their work was frozen. Lower-wage contract workers, particularly janitorial and food service staff at federal buildings, often lose income they’ll never recover. During the 2025–2026 shutdown, SBA estimated that $2.5 billion in small business loans were blocked in the first 15 business days alone.¹⁷

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 1341 – Limitations on Expending and Obligating Amounts
2
U.S. General Services Administration. Operations in the Absence of Appropriations
3
The White House. OMB Circular A-11, Section 124 – Agency Operations in the Absence of Appropriations
4
U.S. Department of Defense. Updated Contingency Plan Guidance for Continuation of Operations in the Absence of Appropriations, January 2026
5
U.S. Department of Justice. U.S. Department of Justice FY 2026 Contingency Plan
6
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Contingency Planning
7
Social Security Administration. What the Federal Government Shutdown Means to Your Clients
8
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS FY 2026 Contingency Staffing Plan
9
Transportation Security Administration. Oversight Hearing – Potential DHS Shutdown Impacts
10
United States Courts. Judiciary To Remain Open Until Feb. 5
11
Congressman Jimmy Panetta. Information on Services During the Partial Government Shutdown
12
Congressional Research Service. National Park Service – Government Shutdown Issues
13
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Government Shutdown FAQ
14
Internal Revenue Service. Statement on IRS Operations Limited During the Lapse in Appropriations; Regular Tax Deadlines Remain
15
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Contingency Plan
16
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA Shutdown Furlough Guide for Employees
17
U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA Releases State-Level Analysis of Shutdown Impact on Small Business Lending
18
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Operations Plan Under a Lapse in Appropriations
19
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Division of Corporation Finance Actions in Advance of a Potential Government Shutdown
20
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Employee Frequently Asked Questions – Lapse in Appropriations
21
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Guidance for Shutdown Furloughs
22
U.S. Government Publishing Office. Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Public Law 116-1
23
U.S. Department of Labor. Federal Furloughs – UCFE Fact Sheet
24
Acquisition.GOV. 52.242-15 Stop-Work Order